Single hard-drive defaults to hdb

[nemeswormwood]

I have a single hard drive with Linux Installed on it. However rather than being assigned hda, it is assigned hdb. There is no hda on my system.

This happened when I previously dual booted with Windows.

I have checked the wiring,

The hard drive is the only device on the primary IDE, it is set to 'cable select' (Actually I have no choice here since the tab at the back is missing and CS is the factory default.)

The cdrom drive is the only device on the secondary IDE and is set to 'master'.

I wouldn't mind but I am having trouble installing LILO to the MBR and root drive.

Regards

Nemes

============================
Slackware 8.1 : Compaq Deskpro ENSS
(Pentium III 733 : ~10GB : 256MB sdram : Intel i815e Chipset : AC97 onboard sound)

[JohnT]

Got some spare cable? Might try this little trick........
http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/hard_drive_cable-select.html

[nemeswormwood]

Hmm, maybe as a last resort :-)

Fortunately I found a tab from an old cd rom and I can use it on my hard drive. However will placing this on as master (or slave) ruin my installation? (All is already installed on hdb.)

Regards

Nemes

[Piix4]

The reason the hard drive is showing up as hdb is because you have it's ide jumpers set to be slave.

Suggestion.

Remove it's ide jumpers and make it the only ide device on your primary ide controller, that way cable select should take care of it for you.

else

Set the drive to be master... and then set it up on the primary ide controller again.

If you are adding any other ide devices to your primary controller those 'must' be hard disks..... lest you tempt the gods and try to run a cdrom and hard disk from the one ide interface.

Piix4

[Piix4]

That said why don't you try running the cdrom from cable select and the hard disk using the jumper from your cdrom drive?

ah ha!

[nemeswormwood]

Thanks, I had a feeling it was because it wasn't specifically set as the master. (However I thought 'Cable Select' would recognise it as master since it is the only device on the Primary IDE cable.)

I'm going to try a tab I found on an old cdrom I had lying around.

Will it mess up my disk though (I don't want to install and configure Slackware more times than I have to :-)

Regards

Nemes

[Piix4]

Depends.

If you have the hard disk here

[ide controller]-------------[first connector]-----------[second connector]---hard disk attached.

Then the drive should be recognised as master, either that or on the first connector.
Literally though I think the connector determines if the drive is set to master or slave.... I could be wrong because I never supported cable select on ide drives (because Gateway EMEA didn't).

Piix4.

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by Piix4
Depends.

If you have the hard disk here

[ide controller]-------------[first connector]-----------[second connector]---hard disk attached.

Then the drive should be recognised as master, either that or on the first connector.
Literally though I think the connector determines if the drive is set to master or slave.... I could be wrong because I never supported cable select on ide drives (because Gateway EMEA didn't).

Piix4.

If you have to use cable select, then just move the HD to the other connector on the IDE cable.

[nemeswormwood]

There is only one connector on both main IDE cables (Compaq's proprietry hardware....)

Anyway I have just put the tab on making the hd the master and the computer wouldn't boot (sent a kernel argument directing to root now on hda1 but too much other software refers to /dev/hdb1 for me to fix). I have reinstalled Slackware (actually not as bad as I first thought.)

All is in order now and I am typing from a hda-only machine. (Which BTW also loads LILO fine.)

Thanks for your help.

Nemes

[JohnT]

Originally posted by nemeswormwood

(I don't want to install and configure Slackware more times than I have to :-)


I don't believe you wrote that
Take it back.:D:D

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by nemeswormwood
There is only one connector on both main IDE cables (Compaq's proprietry hardware....)

Anyway I have just put the tab on making the hd the master and the computer wouldn't boot (sent a kernel argument directing to root now on hda1 but too much other software refers to /dev/hdb1 for me to fix). I have reinstalled Slackware (actually not as bad as I first thought.)

All is in order now and I am typing from a hda-only machine. (Which BTW also loads LILO fine.)

Thanks for your help.

Nemes

Reinstalled ???? Shame on you. ;)

You only needed to use a bootdisk or your install cd in rescue mode to access your system and change hdb to hda in /etc/fstab and your bootloader config.

That was all you had to do...